Cover band 3½ Men invited 9-year-old drummer Adam Wooten to sit in one night as a friendly gesture. About three years later, Adam is not just the band’s drummer — he’s stealing the show.

Singer and bass player Matt Cohen remembers a recent show in Nashville where Adam was seated behind a Plexiglas barrier covered with graffiti. He said audience members left their seats to peek behind the wall at the drummer and when they did, “their jaws dropped.”

“People literally didn’t realize it was a 12-year-old playing drums,” said Cohen, 46. “I’ve had the chance to play with a lot of really great drummers over the years, and I can tell you that Adam, and how he lays down that groove, is already one of the best drummers I’ve ever played with.”

May 1, 1939-Dec. 13, 2012

Willie Ackerman performing on Hee Haw. Photo Courtesy of the Ackerman Family

William Paul “Willie Ackerman,” a drummer who played on country music classics including Marty Robbins’ “El Paso,” George Jones’ “The Grand Tour” and Jerry Reed’s “Amos Moses,” died Thursday at Skyline Medical Center in Nashville after years of declining health. A professional musician from the age of 17, Mr. Ackerman was 73.

Willie Ackerman on the drums circa 1959. Photo Courtesy of the Ackerman Family

“The very first tour I ever went on — the tour where Roger Miller had to hock his record player to have enough money to put gas in the car — Willie played drums,” said Country Music Hall of Famer Bill Anderson. “That was 1959, and he was so young. He was backing up Roger, George Morgan, me and Johnny Paycheck, who was still called Donny Young at the time. I remember sitting in the back seat of a Cadillac leaving town, next to Willie.”

Such tours were grueling, and Mr. Ackerman soon focused on making music in recording sessions and on stages around Nashville. He was adaptable enough to make the transition from the smooth “Nashville Sound” of the 1960s to the propulsive Outlaw era of the ’70s, equally at home playing behind Patsy Cline on live versions of the elegant “Crazy” as he was laying down the fierce beat on Waylon Jennings’ recording of “Black Rose.”

Mr. Ackerman also served for decades as a deputy sheriff.

“I’d be driving around Donelson as a teenager and get pulled over, not knowing why,” says son Trey Ackerman. “Then dad would get out of the car, grinning at me, ear to ear. His motto was, ‘Every drummer should drive a police car,’ but really he drove a Ford Pinto, with those magnet lights you stick on the roof of the car with your left hand.”

Mr. Ackerman was a member of the Nashville Association of Musicians union for 50 years and served on the union board.

Visitation will be from 2 to 6 p.m. on Sunday at Marshall-Donnelly-Combs Funeral Home, 201 25th Ave. N. in Nashville. A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. on Monday at Marshall-Donnelly-Combs, followed by burial at Spring Hill Cemetery.